Georgia was founded in 1733 by James Oglethorpe, who had been granted a charter by King George II in 1732 to found a colony named after the king. Oglethorpe carried out the terms of the charter by naming the last of the thirteen British colonies in America Georgia. The state of Georgia has no officially designated nickname, although it recognizes the use of several unofficial nicknames. Georgia is known as the Peach State and the Goober State for the importance of peaches and peanuts in the state's agricultural economy. Two nicknames refer to the determination and will of Georgia's citizens to lead the South in industrial and economic development--the Empire State of the South and the Yankee-land of the South. Georgia is also known as the Cracker State and the Buzzard State. A cracker, originally a derogatory term meaning braggarts, was the term used to describe immigrants into Georgia who came from the mountains of Virginia and North Carolina. The Buzzard State refers to the fact that buzzards were once protected by law in Georgia.
The first people to live in what is now Georgia were prehistoric Indians named Mound Builders. Earlier than white men came to the region, the Creek Indians had settled in the south as well as the Cherokee in the north. (Albert B. Saye, 1943, pp 12-15)
Hernando de Soto of Spain was most likely the first white man to visit the Georgia region. He crossed the region in 1540, on his way from Florida to the Mississippi River. In 1564, French settlers founded a colony in Florida. This action angered King Philip II of Spain, who asserted all of what is at present the southeastern United States. In 1565, he sent Pedro Menendez de Aviles to expel the French. Menendez conquered them, and after that makes stronghold along the Atlantic coast..................
